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Table 2 Summary of tendon injury models

From: Models of tendon development and injury

Injured Tendon Characteristics

Model Characteristics

Model Outcomes

References

Overuse injury

Downhill running in rats

Induced overuse injury in the supraspinatus

Soslowsky 2000 [107]

Archaumbault 2006 [108]

Bipedal downhill running in rats

Reduced stiffness and tensile strength; localized disintegration of collagen bundles

Ng 2011 [109]

Uphill running in rats

Achilles tendons adapted to loading; no observable pathology

Heinemeier

2012 [110]

Dirks 2013 [111]

Transection/Acute injury

Neonatal and adult mouse Achilles tendons

Regeneration observed in neonates, but not adults

Howell 2017 [112]

Mouse supraspinatus tendons with full and partial transections

Different cell populations involved in healing of full versus partial injury; distinct cell lineages participate in healing response

Moser 2018 [113]

Yoshida 2016 [114]

Rat Achilles tendon partial transection repaired with scaffolds

Cells in scaffolds expressed mohawk during repair

Otabe 2015 [32]

Mouse Achilles tendon full transections repaired with MSC sheets overexpressing mohawk

Mohawk-overexpressing MSC sheets resulted in increased collagen fibril diameter, visible crimp, increased stiffness, elastic modulus, maximum force and stress, and energy absorbed

Liu 2015 [31]

Canine digital flexor tendons

Following injury, IL-1β upregulated 4000-fold, MMP-13 upregulated 24,000-fold

Manning 2014 [115]

IL-1β treatment

E15 and P7 mouse tendon cells treated with IL-1β

Higher expression of IL-6, TNFα, COX2, MMP-3 and MMP-13 in P7 compared to E15

Li 2019 [116]

Human patellar tendon fibroblasts treated with IL-1β and strain

IL-1β and 8% strain upregulated MMP-1, COX2, and PGE2; IL-1β and 4% strain downregulated expression of MMP-1, COX2, and PGE2 compared to 8% strain

Yang 2005 [117]

Adult and fetal equine tendon cells, and equine embryonic stem cells treated with IL-1β

Adult and fetal tendon cells upregulated MMP-1, −2, −3, −8, −9, and − 13, tenascin-C, Sox9, and downregulated scleraxis and COMP, compared to embryonic stem cells

McClellan 2019 [118]

Genetic knockouts

Tenomodulin knockout mice with transected and repaired Achilles tendons

Downregulation of Col I, tenascin-C, thrombospondin 2, and TGFβ1; upregulation of scleraxis, COMP, and proteoglycan 4

Lin 2017 [119]

GDF-5 knockout mice subjected to Achilles tendon injury

Delayed healing and increased adipocytes in knockouts

Chhabra 2003 [120]

Decorin-null and biglycan-null mice subjected to full thickness, partial width patellar tendon injury in adult and aged groups

Smaller diameter collagen fibrils, decreased cell density, and altered cell shape and collagen alignment in knockouts; biglycan influenced early healing, decorin influenced late healing

Dunkman

2014 [121]

Dunkman 2014 [122]

Chronic Injury/Induced Tendinopathy

Transection or Botox-unloading of rat Achilles tendon

Irreversible loss of scleraxis expression with transection; partial loss and return of scleraxis with Botox

Maeda 2011 [123]

Immediate or delayed repair of rat rotator cuff injury

Delayed repair had worse outcomes than immediate repair

Killian 2014 [124]

TGFβ1 injection to rat Achilles

Warburg pathway, hypoxic, angiogenic, and glycolytic metabolism gene activation

Sikes 2018 [125]

Collagenase injection in rat Achilles tendon

Increased IL-6 and MMP-9 in senescence-accelerated rats compared to senescence-resistant rats

Ueda 2019 [126]

Carrageenan injection in rat patellar tendon; treatment with IL-1 receptor antagonist

Carrageenan decreased tendon length, and increased MMP activity and inflammation. Inflammation absent with IL-1 receptor antagonist

Berkoff 2016 [127]

Ex vivo Loading

Stress deprivation in rat tail tendons

Increased MMP-13 expression

Arnoczky 2007 [128]

Stress deprivation in rat tail tendons

Stress deprivation decreased TIMP/MMP ratio; loading increased TIMP/MMP ratio

Gardner 2008 [129]

Fatigue loading of rat flexor digitorum longus tendon loaded at low (6.0–7.0%), moderate (8.5–9.5%), and high (11.0–12.0%) tensile strain

Isolated fiber deformations at low strain; fiber dissociation and localized rupture, decreased stiffness, and increased hysteresis at high strain

Fung 2009 [130]

Equine flexor and extensor tendon cells subjected to 10% biaxial cyclic loading

Collagen synthesis, proliferation, COMP expression as a function of tendon type

Goodman 2004 [131]

Equine superficial digital flexor tendon fascicles cyclically loaded from 2–12% uniaxial strain and 1800 cycles

Increased expression of IL-6, COX2, C1, C2, and MMP-13

Thorpe 2015 [132]

Bovine deep digital flexor tendons cyclically loaded from 1 to 10% strain

Collagen fiber disruption, kinks, and interfascicular network damage, and expression of IL-6, COX2, MMP-1, 3, and 13

Spiesz 2015 [48]

Mouse patellar tendon cells isolated from 3-week old mohawk knockouts and subjected to 4% cyclic tensile loading

Increased chondrogenic gene expression (Col II, Aggrecan, COMP)

Suzuki 2016 [47]

Computational models

Cell- and tissue-level responses to strain simulated via Hill functions

Tissue-level response similar at low and high strain conditions

Mehdizadeh 2017 [133]

Hill-type equations of human Achilles-soleus unit

Proteolytic damage leads to collagen fiber shortening; mechanical damage lengthens fibers

Young 2016 [134]

Regression model of healing

Multiple differential predictors of early development and early developmental healing; however, no differential predictors of late development and late developmental healing

Ansorge 2012 [135]

2D FEA simulation of “jumper’s knee” in Patellar tendon

Highest localized strain predicted successfully

Lavagnino 2008 [136]

Agent-based model of collagen fibril alignment with applications in tendon loading during healing

Peak collagen alignment occurs at lower strain level than peak deposition; peak deposition occurs above damage threshhold

Richardson 2018 [137]

Multiscale OpenSim model of cellular responses to various loading parameters

Single set of cellular response curves explained tendon behavior observed in several different experiments

Chen 2018 [138]

Empirical model of patellar tendon response to aging and injury

Effects of aging and injury on patellar tendon mechanical properties predicted by damage models

Buckley 2013 [139]

Empirical model of Achilles tendon response to decorin and biglycan knockout in aging mice

Model predicted changes in dynamic modulus resulting from decorin and biglycan knockout

Gordon 2015 [140]